Webber miffed not to be on front row in Brazil

24 November 2012

Mark Webber has expressed his 'disappointment' after failing to qualify on the front row in Brazil.

The Aussie will start the F1 2012 season finale at Interlagos in third, but with just 0.068 seconds between him and Jenson Button in P2, and only 0.123 seconds separating him from Lewis Hamilton on pole, he was frustrated not to have been slightly faster, although he did feel he had got the most out of his Red Bull RB8. He was also 0.179 seconds up on team-mate, Sebastian Vettel, who will start alongside him in fourth.

“We got the most out of that, but it was disappointing not to get onto the front row,” Webber confirmed. “I thought the lap would be enough, but we were a tenth off; it's always tight here in qualifying.

“In the last race of the season it would have been good to get pole, but fair play to McLaren.”

Meanwhile, looking to the race, Webber conceded Sunday could be very unpredictable, especially with the chance of rain so high.

“We don't know what the weather will do tomorrow, and if all of the race laps will be on intermediate or wet tyres – we need to plan that some might be on slicks too,” he added. “You never know what will happen here with the weather.”

“Both our cars on the second row of the grid is a strong result, particularly after the pre-qualifying rain,” summarised Red Bull Racing team principal, Christian Horner. “We navigated ourselves through Q1 and Q2, with Seb going quickest in Q2, and then the McLarens found a bit of extra pace in Q3.

“However, Mark drove an excellent lap, extracted the maximum out of the car and lines up third, with Sebastian alongside him in fourth.

“Our focus now turns to the race and if you believe the forecast it's going to be very wet, but our objective now is to maximize the points out from these grid positions.”